DOT Chief: State Will Honor Promise For More Passenger Trains To Worcester
Richard Davey, the head of the debt-saddled Massachusetts Department of Transportation, told Blackstone Valley businesspeople this morning in Grafton that the state remains committed to adding passenger rail cars to Union Station in Worcester, despite a $5.5 billion debt that is also forcing service cutbacks and fee hikes on public transportation.
"What we've proposed for the Worcester line, and all lines, are elimination of weekend service and elimination of service after 10 p.m.," Davey said. "Juxtapose that with the commitment that we have to add more service to the Worcester line as a result of the CSX deal. We will still honor that commitment to add trains this fall, probably late fall."
Davey said state officials are having discussions with residents and local officials around the state to determine the best path forward, whether it is cuts in service, fare hikes or a combination of each. He said most people he has spoken to would rather see fare hikes than service cuts, if they had to choose.
He said he hopes the DOT can find some one-time revenues to avoid the cuts.
Davey, who spoke at the Grafton Inn before the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, has been the public face of reform for Mass DOT since August. He wore a pin this morning that read: "But we've always done it this way."
He said it is a not-so-subtle acknowledgment that the state has made mistakes in the past with its transportation spending. The infamous Big Dig project has left the agency in more debt than any transit agency in the country - barely able to cover debt service with the fares it takes in and paying highway maintenance workers using capital bonds.
"This is not the way to manage a long-term business," Davey said. "We have a structural problem at the DOT."
Davey listed the ways in which the DOT has saved money so far, including trimming staff to the lowest level in 15 years, saving on employee health plans and bringing numerous former transporation bureaucracies under one roof to achieve efficiencies.
"Reform is working, but it is not enough," he said.
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